Tag Archives: private prisons

There were nearly 500 incidents in Arizona’s prison system when convicts attempted to either hurt or kill themselves in 2015, despite efforts to push for better mental health treatment and a legal settlement ordering the Department of Corrections to improve psychiatric services.

As lawmakers developed the fiscal year 2016 spending plan, an unofficial rallying point among the education and human services communities was that the prison system is growing at the expense of schools and children.

Officials with the private prison operator that runs Arizona State Prison-Kingman say sex offenders that are set to be housed at the prison by the end of March will be taken elsewhere before their release.

The for-profit prisons have become very prolific lobbyists, shoveling more than $10 million to candidates since 1989 and have spent nearly $25 million on lobbying. GEO Group alone reported $650,000 in federal lobbying expenses in 2014. In addition, they spent over $5.7 million on state and local political contributions between 2003 and 2014, according to data compiled by the National Institute on Money in State Politics.

Days of unrest at a privately run prison in Arizona became a nightmare scenario as inmates rioted, trashed housing units and injured guards, prompting the governor to order an investigation Monday into the problem at the facility.